The current directors haven't been there long enough to have chosen these themselves, but - well... - they have what they have.
I DID refuse to take them back to the shop in those absurd steamer-trunk-size/weight fuzzy grey cases.
I'm constantly re-soldering the carriage brackets on these things, as Санкт-Петербург chose to braze a tenuous flange onto a brass rod squiggle, rather than (as even with Jinbao) the stout 90-degree brackets with the heavy C-flanges.
This time, though, apparently they lost both the screw and the bracket, so (I suppose) they just decided to let the janitor sweep up the bracket and dispose of it.
I was about to order this part from the eastern seaboard this morning but - dang it! - this thing is part of a $1XXX order, and I want my damn money...
...so I dug out some scrap material and cooked this up - baked to c. a toasty 850° or so.
I'll stick it on after breakfast.
I have NO idea why I had one of these oem mount screws, but I did, and what a doofus propriety thread: The thread pitch is .7, but the major diameter is only .144" (3.65mm)...so I tapped the hole to an M4 x .7 (sigh), if it's just too loosey-goosey, I'll use a Miraphone screw, which is just a regular M4 (and no, it's not an 8/32, because the major diameter of that sae thread is even larger than 4mm, and the pitch is not .7mm).
oh yeah...They're going to have to be happy with brass (instead of nickel), unless I decide to super-deluxe it with a rattle can.
I already repaired three other of these nickel enigmas, today. Remaining to repair are two smushy Jupiphoniums and - well - another school that has four old style King 2341 tubas', and trashed the #1 pistons and casings on TWO of them - all within the last school year - just trashed yet another #1 piston and casing on a third one. I had a #1/#3 piston (same piston for both) at the ready, repaired the casing, un-beat-up the body (but have some mouthpipe tube repairs yet to do - drilled ball and cable, etc...), and all that's remaining is to replace all the latches and the handle on the body case for that King, so I'm sorta headed for the finish line with this pile-o-stuff.
I'd LIKE to get these instruments (two schools, which also include a bassoon and a bass clarinet - which Mrs. bloke has already knocked out) delivered and billed TOMORROW, and go on to other things...
...so the $1XXX is actually two schools (roughly twenty miles between them).
...By Tuesday, someone else has a brand-new Schlagerl (piston, not rotary) C trumpet (with the inside-outside upper main tuning slide tube gadgety - ironically, copied from a Japanese model) on which they would like for me to mount a main slide trigger (very short upper tube, alignment is currently so-so, there's the double-friction issue with that upper slide tube, and the upper tube isn't very long at all...sigh...)
A month or two ago, I pulled same-gadgetry hardware (which I fabricated years ago) off of a Bach that they sold, so I have some bits and parts to get started with...but I'm not looking forward to this...I've known this person since the 1990's, so how could I say "no" ? 
I'm told that the open pitch, G (surely, the 6th partial one), is quite high - thus the need for the gadgety...plus it's in C - so out-of-tune by default, just as with C tubas. (Apparently, Schlagerl shipped it raw brass, told my friend to get it pimped out just as he wants, send it back, and then they will gold plate it.)I was ACTUALLY hoping that I could practice a bit with the Miraphone 98, tonight (instead of making this tinkertoy).
The 98 isn't particularly forgiving: When slurring (even) step-wise, the embouchure frequency has to be just right for each pitch (whereas some other tubas will sort of "guide" the player's buzz to follow the length of the instrument)...but this tuba expects me to do it all...and that's fine, but I need to (after not playing for weeks, and only fixing horns) need to "get back into it". That having been said, when give the 98 the proper input, it REALLY gives the proper output...and in spades.
